Friday January 14th 2022

Today was a travel day to Fort Wilderness at Disney World in central Florida. It was almost a perfect weather day for travel. The sun was out and the temperature was around seventy. The only down side was the strong wind out of the northwest. The gusts really bounced the motorhome around a bit.

I got on the road at 11:30AM. My first stop was at a gas station for fuel. I had allowed the tank to get below a quarter by telling myself the price of fuel would go down. It did at a few of the stations, but the one I choose had only gone down a penny or two. Other, less accessible, stations in the same area were almost ten cents cheaper. I put in two credit card authorizations worth of gas for a total of $200 and still didn’t fill the tank.

Traffic going north on Interstate 75 was heavy, but it kept moving. Once I turned east on Intestate 4 the traffic situation stated to deteriorate. At many of the intersections traffic slowed to a crawl to allow for all the merging vehicles. Nearing the end of my journey, on the outskirts of Orlando, traffic turned to stop and go. This is a par for the course. I arrived at Fort Wilderness a little after 2PM.

I had already checked in online. Disney sent a text message with my site number while I was on Interstate 4. I stopped briefly at the rest area east of Lakeland to read the details so I was able to go straight to my site without waiting in the long line at the entrance toll booths. Knowing how narrow and busy the roads are in the camping loop, I stopped at the overflow parking area to disconnect the car from the motorhome before going to my site. By 3PM I was setup and ready for some lunch.

This evening I walked down to Bay Lake to watch the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. It is a long walk, but the internal bus system seems to be infrequent. There is a nice sidewalk to follow, so it is an easy walk. The only issue is seeing where your going. All of the golf carts on the road have very bright led headlights that are equivalent to full beams on a car. They do a very good job of ruining ones night vision every time one passes.

The beach area I watched the fireworks from in the past is not available. The area is fenced off to allow for the construction of the new Disney Vacation Club Resort where the old River Country Water Park used to be. Construction was stopped at the beginning of the pandemic and hasn’t been restarted. There are still areas to view the fireworks, but it isn’t possible to spread out as much now. It was hard to hear the music with all the conversations and playing kids. The fireworks show was great. Here are some pictures.